DOGMA – Face of Violence

June 8, 2023

Releasedate: 31-05-2023

On May 31st, Dogma unveiled their latest album titled ‘Face of Violence,’ following their earlier teasers for the tracks ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ and ‘Borderli(n)es.’ DOGMA is a (metallic) hardcore band, that combines a plea for social justice with hard riffs and heavy drums. The band started working on this album during the pandemic and is now ready to unleash their message on stage. If you want to hear what kicking institutionalized violence in the face through heavy riffs sounds like, let’s dive into this album.

About the tracks

The album opens with the title track ‘Face of Violence’. Even though DOGMA is a hardcore band, they’ve adopted a lot of other metal styles, which can clearly be heard on this track. As we already heard in the two songs that were previously got released, vocalist Maarten portrays a lot of aggression and emotion in his vocals. Fitting the lyrics perfectly. However, a little more variation in the vocals would be nice in some parts, especially since the raspy screams make me wonder how badly the vocalist’s throat is fucked up after recording this album.

Smoke and Mirrors was our first introduction to this band. Groovy riffs, nice breakdowns, and heavily political lyrics about the Dutch bombing in Iraq. It’s clear this band has something to say and isn’t afraid to speak their minds. Onto Feeding the Hand that Bites, which is again a new track. Lots of tempo changes in this track, which makes it interesting to listen to. There are a bit more variations in the vocal lines (melody-wise) too, and lots of low and slow parts.

Compared to the previous tracks, Borderli(n)es feels a lot heavier. That might also be because it picks up speed in the intro. The track never really speeds up though. The whole album is a mid-tempo-paced stream of aggression. Conclude the Fight has some of my favorite riffs on this album. Groovy riffs and squeals always do it for me, and because of that the whole thing gets a Machine Head vibe, even though it turns into hardcore pretty quickly after the intro. The final track of the album is Toxic Apathy, since If you see me, then Weep is a 37-second soundscape that serves as an intro into Toxic Apathy. Without a doubt, Toxic Apathy is my favorite track of the album. This is mainly due to clearer songwriting, groovy riffs, and the vocal harmonies that give us some much-needed variation in the vocal lines. I wish they would have added vocal harmonies on more of the tracks since it really improves the track.

Final thoughts

Face of Violence is a worthy first release, as it punches hard and heavy. The production is well done, the artwork is cool and I like the message the band portrays. There is however room for growth. The raspy screams tend to get boring after a while because there isn’t much variation in the vocal lines. While variation is needed in the vocal lines, for song structure and riffs a little less variation might work better. Some tracks have so many different riffs and tempo changes, that it’s not always as cohesive. Not that the tracks are bad, I just feel they might be better if they were a little bit more cohesive and straightforward. An example of how that can be done, and that the band can achieve this, is Toxic Apathy. I personally also want to compliment the band for taking a stand.